NHL to Double in Size

June 25, 1965 - The National Hockey League, which often has more fans than seats at its games, voted today to expand from a six-team to a 12-team league no later than 1968.

St. Louis and Los Angeles were awarded the first two franchises in the new six-team division, which may be formed by 1967.

Each new club will pay $2 million for its franchise, which will also entitle it to 20 players to be picked in a special draft.

The league will increase its 70-game schedule to 74, and the new clubs will play at least four games with the established teams — New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto.

Hockey becomes the last professional sport to expand, following baseball, football, and basketball. This marks the first change in the structure of the NHL since 1942, when the Brooklyn Americans retired.

Despite the fact that there is only one American-born player active in the league, hockey attendance is at its high-water mark. The Boston Bruins, who finished last during the season, played to nearly 80% capacity, while the first-place Detroit Red Wings played to more than 100% of seating capacity. Attendance in the NHL has increased each season since 1951.

Two of the standards that the league president, Clarence Campbell, said Los Angeles and St. Louis met were that each had an arena seating at least 12,500 persons and a rink size of 200 feet by 85 feet.

Other cities with facilities that can or do meet the requirements are Baltimore, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco-Oakland, Vancouver, B.C., and Washington.

How playoffs will be conducted has yet to be decided. There is talk of a title match between the division champions, who will probably be decided by quarter-final and semi-final eliminations.

With expansion, it is likely that interest in hockey will increase across the U.S. Campbell, courting future players, noted that the average NHL salary was about $14,000 a year and that many players earn more than $20,000.

“We now have the prestige of a coast-to-coast operation,” he added.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s